Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from ES Ben Aknoun for Said Bellahcene was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad18 Jun 2040
Andrea Sodero falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
332 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Andrea Sodero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between ES Setif and USM Khenchela, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The name of Said Bellahcene has come up in conversations ES Setif were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CR Belouizdad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CR Belouizdad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bilal Boukerchaoui was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CR Belouizdad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lofti Boussouar and CR Belouizdad agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Dec 2039
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorougnon Gohi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It needed Lofti Boussouar to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Olympique Akbou, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CR Belouizdad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Nov 2039
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorougnon Gohi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
CS Constantine will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CR Belouizdad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CR Belouizdad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 17 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CR Belouizdad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.61 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CR Belouizdad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Isaiah Ngbede has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Sep 2039
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorougnon Gohi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason JS Kabylie will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sid Ahmed Lahmer has just signed for JS Kabylie, and for once the answer mattered.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.97, and involved in 3 of his side's goals.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Célestin Écua was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.93, and 2 involvements.
6 goals in one match, Alieu Fadera on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of JS Kabylie and USM Khenchela.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CR Belouizdad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Aug 2039
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorougnon Gohi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: MC Oran have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdelmalek Kelaleche. The answer from CR Belouizdad has not changed — yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Karim Touba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CR Belouizdad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jul 2039
7 new faces, and CR Belouizdad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at CR Belouizdad will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Islam Eddine Slimane Tichtich and CR Belouizdad agree another 1 years.
Abdelghani Mohamed was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Jun 2039
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Ghaly is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.